thout temporary sacrifice.

[HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE DISTINCT AIMS.]

If it be said that the best mode of attaining happiness is to put
ourselves entirely out of account, and to work for others exclusively,
this, as already noted, is a self-contradiction. It is to tell people
not to think of their own happiness, and yet to know that they are
securing that in the most effectual way. It is also very questionable,
indeed absolutely erroneous, in fact. The most apparent way to secure
happiness is to ply all the known means of happiness, just as far as,
and no farther than, they are discovered to produce the effect. We must
keep a check upon the methods that we employ, and abandon those that do
not answer. So long as we find happiness in serving others, so long we
continue in that course. And it is a melancholy fact that Pope's bold
assertion--"Virtue alone is happiness below,"--cannot be upheld against
the stern realities of life. Life needs to be made up of two aims--the
one, Happiness, the other Virtue, each on its own account. There is a
certain mutual connection of the two, but all attempts at making out
their identity are failures.

It is of very great importance to teach men the bearings of virtue on
happiness, so far as these are known. There will, however, always remain
a portion of duty that detracts from happiness, and must be done as
duty, nevertheless. Men are entitled to pursue happiness as directly as
ever they please; only, they must couple with the pursuit their round of
duties to others; in which they may or may not reap a share of the
coveted good for self.

* * * * *

Let us, next, consider some of the difficulties and mistakes attaching
to the WILL. Here there are the questions of world-renown, questions
known even in Pandemonium--Free-will, Responsibility, Moral Ability, and
Inability. It is now suspected, on good grounds, that, on these
questions, we have somehow got into a wrong groove--that we are lost in
a maze of our own constructing.

[A STRONG WILL THE GIFT OF NATURE.]

I. We shall first notice a misconception akin to some of the foregoing
mistakes respecting the feelings. In addressing men with a view to spur
their activity, there is usually a too low estimate of what is implied
in great and energetic efforts of will. Here, exactly as in the cheerful
temperament, we find a certain constitutional endowment, a certain
natural force of character, having its physi